The Married Life

Chapters:

Jack here. Vanessa wants me to do the next three
parts of this journal, because she needs a better perspective of
how I felt. After Vanessa told me she was pregnant, and after she
passed out on the bench, I flew her up to our room and laid her
down. I wanted to lie down beside her and just hold her. I felt
dazed, and pleasantly confused. I know it was kind of immature,
but all I wanted to do was say "I have created life!" I think
that's why I'm always joking. It's just me giving my brain time
to process things before I take them seriously.

And for a while, I did. I closed my eyes and held her
in my arms and hummed every lullaby I knew. It felt right, the
lullabies. I'm not sure why. Things felt…I don't know, right,
somehow. I had a family again, all the parts of one. I had my
mother, my sister, my wife, and, in a few months, my daughter.
And I fit into that. I was a son, a brother, a husband, a
soon-to-be father. It's quite a stretch, going from being
invisible to this.

Days went by. Vanessa decided she wanted to take a
little bit of a trip. We wanted to visit our other friend's
kingdoms. First was Merida's home, in Scotland (her father Fergus
said that I was welcome any time after we had a burping contest
and I beat him), then, off to Berk, to see Hiccup and Merida,
then finally Corona, to see Rapunzel's home. Vanessa was kind of
restless about sitting still in a castle for nine months.

When our carriage pulled up to Castle Dun'Broch, the king and
queen and princes were waiting for us.

"My, my. If it isn't Jack Frost, the Belch King," said Fergus
when he saw me. I laughed. Eleanor turned to Fergus and gave him
a playful smack. "Alright, alright, not in front of the ladies.
Hubert, get Jack's bags. Hamish, get Vanessa's. Harris, help the
lady out of her carriage."

I laughed as Hubert struggled to hoist my bag, despite being
fourteen. Hamish didn't have much trouble with Vanessa's, because
she had, as she'd put it, packed light. Harris was an incredible
gentleman while helping Vanessa out of the carriage. It was
obvious who was a proper prince, who was a warrior prince, and
who was the simpering ninny prince who would barely be able to
climb up into his throne. Vanessa made casual conversation with
Eleanor.

"I claim the right of a rematch," said Fergus, keeping his voice
low so his wife wouldn't reprimand him.

"Sorry, Fergus. No can do. The Mrs. and I are here for a reason
and she's gonna need me to be mature for her." I hoped that he
wouldn't ask for what reason.

"Really? Vanessa made you mature?"

"Barely. I just have to be supportive for her for the next little
while."

"How long?"

"Nine months, give or take a few days."

"Why?" He narrowed his eyes as the pieces began to slowly fall
into place in his head. "Did you go ahead and decide it was time
for some wee ones?"

I snorted and looked away. He took that as a yes and went off to
tell his wife all about it. I sighed and walked over to Vanessa.
I took her hand and we walked together. Eleanor showed us to our
room.

We were only in Scotland for about a month. In that time, Eleanor
filled Vanessa's head with advice about what to do with
rambunctious husbands and how to deal with naughty children.
Fergus taught me some more sword fighting maneuvers and how to
shoot. We all went out riding, Hubert, Hamish, and Harris along
with us. I found out I was right. Hubert was always fumbling over
his words and tripping over his own two feet. Hamish joined
Fergus and me in our fencing and archery contests. A lot of the
time he whipped both of us at both of the sports. Harris was
polite and never joined in our fun. He stood off to the side with
Vanessa and Eleanor, laughing when they did and clapping when
they did. We met Maudie, the maid that Merida had told us all
about. She was still petrified of bears, thanks to that one
incident when Merida was thirteen. We heard a lot about the three
lords, MacGuffin, Dingwall and Macintosh. We never got to meet
them, but they seemed a lot like the Three Stooges. We went to
the Fire Falls, and Vanessa and I both flew to the top of the
Crone's Tooth. I drank the water from the Fire Falls, and Fergus
acted like it was a big deal.

When the month was over, we said our good-bye and I promised
Fergus we would have a rematch on that burping contest sometime.

Hiccup told us to use a weird whistle that he gave me should I
ever want to visit Berk. I didn't know what exactly it did, so I
blew it. A few minutes later, Toothless came swooping down from
the clouds. I figured that I should hold onto the whistle,
instead of just shoving it in a drawer to be forgotten. I helped
Vanessa get fastened on and then climbed up behind her.

"Toothless, take us to Berk, boy," I said. He seemed to have
nodded. "And make this a gentle flight. There's a pregnant lady
on board."

Vanessa laughed and we flew off. I don't know for how long we
were in the air, but long enough. Soon, I saw rocky hills and
valleys, and then the standing stones Hiccup had told us about,
the ones with torches in the mouths. Off in the distance, not
very far off either, was a village, with a lot of wood for a
place with very little trees. Maybe that was why. Or they got
their wood from the forest I could see in the distance. Toothless
landed near a house that seemed to be separated from the rest. It
wasn't bigger than the others, or grander, it was just on a
cliff. I unbelted myself and then helped Vanessa down. I grabbed
our bags and was going to knock, but the door opened just as I
was reaching up to knock.

The girl who opened the door was someone I didn't recognize. She
had blonde hair that was up in a thick and messy braid. Some of
the hair hung in her left eye and there was a tan leather circlet
with silver studs around it resting on her brow. She was wearing
a brown dress with what appeared to be a chest plate on over top
of it. The dress only went to her knees, under that were a pair
of black tights and a pair of brown boots with a fur lining on
the top of each boot. She had a round nose, soft cheekbones, and
tiny little scars all over her face and arms. She had bright
green eyes and smiled with a little gap between her teeth and
dimples.

"Hiccup, I think your other two friends are here," said the girl.
I heard a muffled reply that she seemed to understand. "I'm
Astrid, one of Hiccup's friends. Come on in."

Vanessa smiled and followed her. I looked back at Toothless, but
he didn't seem concerned. I hefted the bags and went in. There
were only three rooms, a living room/kitchen area, a bedroom, and
a guest room. There were a bunch of people in the living
room/kitchen place. There was a large blond guy, a girl with
light blond hair and a boy who looked the same. I decided they
must be twins and I looked over the boy with black hair. He was
muscular and tall. Hiccup was sitting on the chair with Merida in
his lap. They were all laughing and talking until Astrid
whistled. They looked up and Merida gasped. She bolted onto her
feet and over to Vanessa and wrapped her in a big hug.

"What on Earth are you two adoin' here on Berk?" asked
Merida.

"Well, I didn't want to sit in the castle. We've been gone a
month already. We actually just came from visiting your family,"
said Vanessa.

"You visited my family? Why?"

"Fergus said that we could come any time because Jack beat him in
a burping contest."

"That is an achievement. Many a man has tried to beat him at
that, none have ever done it before."

"Well, he never went against my husband. That's not the only
reason we're here. I need your help with something."

"What?"

"What's a good name for a baby girl?"

Merida's eyes widened and she made a surprised exclamation. She
looked over to me and raised her eyebrows twice, doing that
teasing little gesture.

"We'll get to that. Here," said Merida. She took Vanessa's hand
and turned to face everybody. "Everyone, this is Vanessa and her
husband Jack. Vanessa, this is Fishlegs." She pointed to the
large fellow. He smiled and waved politely. "That's Ruffnut and
Tuffnut, the twins." She pointed to the light haired guy and
girl. "And that's Snotlout." She pointed to the muscular
dark-haired guy. He rolled his eyes. "Ruffnut and Snotlout are
married, and Tuffnut and Astrid are too. Fishlegs…well, he has
Meatlug, I suppose that's well enough for him."

"So, you're a queen?" asked Tuffnut. His voice was gruff.

"Yup," was Vanessa's simple answer.

"Then shouldn't you be in your kingdom?" asked Ruffnut in the
same kind of gruff voice.

"You're Jack Frost?" asked Fishlegs. His voice was full of barely
contained excitement. I was cool with that so I just nodded.

"The one and only," I replied.

Fishlegs opened his mouth to say something, but Astrid glared at
him. "Now is not the time, Fishlegs."

Merida laughed. "Astrid is a bit of a violent blonde." She
laughed at a memory and turned to Hiccup and the others. "You
remember when she came up with yak nog?"

Everyone in the room retched but Astrid, Merida, Vanessa and I.

"I can't believe I actually drank a mug full of that crap," said
Snotlout.

"I put it in my mouth!" said Hiccup.

"Just the smell alone made me want to yak nog all over the
place," said Tuffnut. Ruffnut laughed.

"Thank Odin I didn't drink that stuff," said Fishlegs.

I laughed. "What the heck is yak nog?"

"It's a drink I made the Snoggletog that the dragons took off and
we had no idea where they went. I tried it and I didn't think it
was that bad." Snotlout snorted.

"It was so awful that it made me cry. Me. Cry! I never
cry," said Snotlout.

I liked these Viking friends of Hiccup. They were rambunctious,
loud, hectic, and had hilarious stories to share. I sat down and
joined in the fun, sharing a few stories of my own. I told them
about how I threw a snowball right in Pitch's face during a
serious moment. I found out that Hiccup and Astrid dated when
they were younger. It was such an abstract concept to me, Hiccup
kissing someone who wasn't Merida.

After a while, Hiccup's friends left and Hiccup and I had to do
clean up.

She opened her mouth to say some clever retort, but she just
closed her mouth and shrugged. "Can't argue with that."

"Dude, you actually won an argument with your wife. You have made
a great triumph today." Hiccup gave me a high five.

"I have to ask, why weren't your friends wondering why we all
look fourteen?" I asked. Hiccup looked up from the soapy dishes
he was washing.

"Och, we told them the whole story," said Merida from the couch.

"I think I asked your husband, Merida," I said, leaning on the
broom I had in my hands.

"And I think I don't care," she replied.

"And I think I'm going to head to bed now. You can join me
whenever you're done cleaning, Jack," said Vanessa. She stood up,
stretched and went into the guest room.

"Me too. Same for you, Fishbone," said Merida. She disappeared
into her room.

"Wow. Women are fickle," said Hiccup.

"Especially our women. Did we marry the most temperamental women
in all the land or what?" I replied.

"I would say yes, but that would imply that there was something
wrong with us."

"Well, we'd best finish cleaning." I got right to sweeping, but
then the words that came out of my mouth hit me. I stood up
straight and face-palmed. "I never thought I'd say that in my
life."

That got a small laugh from Hiccup, then he went straight back to
washing the dishes.

"Hey, tomorrow, do you and Vanessa wanna come meet Gobber?" asked
Hiccup after a minute.

"Who the heck is Gobber?" I replied, still sweeping.

"I used to be his apprentice, but I'm not anymore. He's the
blacksmith, and he used to train the kids to kill dragons, but
now he teaches them how to train dragons. I help him with that."

"Are you still close?"

"Closer now than when I was twelve, actually. See, it was his
idea that I go to the school, and without him, I never would have
met you guys. I wouldn't still look fourteen, I wouldn't have so
many great friends, I wouldn't have a beautiful, talented, and
spunky wife, and I wouldn't be on the verge of being a father. I
owe a lot to Gobber."